Ten days later, the Land of Rain attacked once more.
Having been repulsed by Wei Yuan's heavy armored warriors in the previous battle, Hongye had clearly adapted his strategy for this campaign. A contingent of thirty thousand elite heavy armored cavalry appeared on the battlefield, every one mounted upon a colossal marsh crocodile. This cavalry glared with predatory intent, visibly seeking a decisive clash with Wei Yuan's elite units.
Moreover, the proportion of elite troops in the Shaman army had noticeably increased. Most mid-ranking officers were Shaman nobles whose fighting spirit far surpassed that of commoners and slaves. Three more altars had also been erected; more altars meant greater sacrificial power to suppress military qi and stabilize morale.
If Wei Yuan wished to shatter the Shamans once again in open battle, it would demand far greater effort.
Yet while the Shamans had adapted, so too had the humans.
Not only had the number of frontline redoubts increased significantly, but the entire first line had been reinforced with steel plating. The ruins of Ding'an City and the fortification sector east of the city were now merged into a single line, totaling nearly two hundred small redoubts.
Wei Yuan deployed his main army behind the fortification zone, this time committing five heavy armored legions. The gleam of polished armor mirrored the steel roofs of the redoubts, reflecting up to the heavens and presenting the Shamans with what looked like an earth forged of steel, meeting sky and horizon in an overpowering display of force.
In this battle, the Shamans fought with palpably heightened resolve. Every half-shichen, Desolate Shamans would beat the Sky-Supporting War Drums, replenishing bloodlust blessings and protective shamanic curses over their troops.
A vast tide of Shamans swarmed past the fortification zone to clash with the Qingming Army deployed behind it. The moment the lines met, casualties mounted precipitously on both sides, forcing Wei Yuan to commit five subsequent heavy armored legions immediately to plug the gaps.
At that moment, the Marsh Croc cavalry charged forward with murderous intent, bypassing the redoubts to strike straight at Wei Yuan's heavy armored legions. What they had not anticipated was that the instant their charge began, missiles rained down in succession, blasting them all the way to the front of the Qingming lines before a Jade Mountain crashed down, crushing several hundred mounts and riders to death.
Wei Yuan then held off the Marsh Croc Legion with the Longxiang Army. Alongside the five heavy armored legions, the long-held-in-reserve Dragon Wing heavy cavalry finally took the field, crashing into the flank and rear of the Marsh Croc Knights.
This battle was like two resolute gladiators trading blow for blow. Both sides possessed wills of steel. Units were wiped out to the last man, yet the remaining forces continued fighting without giving an inch.
The sole difference was that Wei Yuan's troops possessed not only wills of steel, but bodies encased entirely in steel.
The Marsh Croc Legion was the foremost elite force of the Land of Rain, the sharp edge Hongye relied on to dominate the lowlands and intimidate neighboring realms.
To destroy this force, Wei Yuan anchored his defense around the newly formed Wall of Longxiang to bar their advance, then mobilized multiple heavy armored legions to envelop them from both flanks while the Dragon Wing swept in from behind. Aerial missiles and the Jade Mountain slammed down nearly without pause, and among the encircling armies stood a thousand Dao Foundation cultivators—a veritable downpour of dao arts!
For this battle, Wei Yuan staked virtually all of Qingming's finest assets.
The commander of the Marsh Croc Knights initially had no fear of encirclement, fiercely pressing against Longxiang, unconvinced that anyone could withstand his assault. Human heavy armored infantry were nothing new to him; the dharma idol short-snouted colossal crocodile beneath his saddle could snap one in two with a single bite.
Yet the human force before him held like a wall of bronze and iron. Even after fighting for half a shichen, he had failed to make the slightest dent in the Longxiang line!
Only then did panic set in, and he began organizing a breakout.
However, in the previous engagement Wei Yuan had held only two heavy armored legions; ten days later, he commanded four full heavy armored legions. Forty thousand heavy armored warriors stood like steel bulwarks, firmly blocking the Marsh Crocs' route of retreat.
Simultaneously, Wei Yuan had deployed tens of thousands of pseudo-heavy armored warriors to hold the fortification zone and intercept Shaman reinforcements.
They suppressed the Shaman army primarily with barrages, throwing back repeated relief attempts and leaving the Marsh Crocs in hopeless isolation.
Faced with Qingming's long, seemingly fragile front line that looked as if it could be pierced with a single thrust, the Shaman army launched furious wave attacks, yet failed in every attempt!
Anyone versed in warfare would have understood why Qingming's defense held firm. The barrage consisted not merely of bullets, but cannon shells.
From the moment the Marsh Croc Knights were surrounded, the previously concealed city defense cannons opened fire furiously, sparing no ammunition. Shaman formations were blasted apart before they could even reach the line, and meeting a point-blank hail of fire left them utterly routed.
Whenever small squads managed to breach the perimeter and charge into the positions, they found the Qingming soldiers glowing with light, layered with defensive wards, immense strength, and auspicious blessings that magnified their combat effectiveness. Only then did the Shamans realize that Dao Foundation cultivators among these humans were astoundingly numerous—unimaginably so, far beyond normal bounds!
Refusing to accept this, several Great Shamans brazenly took action, reaping hundreds of lives with several massive curses. Yet all at once, an overwhelming palpitation struck their hearts. Before they could discern the cause of their agitation, divine lightning tinted yellow through azure appeared above each of their heads, crashing down with ruinous power!
Striking their crowns, the divine lightning instantly made them taste life's foulest dregs: a layered concoction of decay, senility, stale sour stench, grease, and slimy moisture. The Great Shamans collapsed flat on their bellies, vomiting violently on the spot!
If even Hongye had been unable to endure the Foul Rot Divine Thunder back then, how could these few possibly withstand it?
Immediately after, real lightning cascaded from the clear sky above the Great Shamans as if the heavens had sprung a leak, reducing them to ashes in the blink of an eye!
Whenever these Great Shamans intervened against ordinary soldiers and their slaughter surpassed a certain threshold, Wei Yuan could counterattack through his Peerless Dao Domain, marking karma to bombard them with dao arts. With Wei Yuan's present dao strength, he could unleash over a hundred ordinary strikes of Falling Lightning within a single breath! Across the world, how many Great Shamans could endure a hundred strikes from Wei Yuan?
With reinforcements unable to reach them, the Marsh Croc Knights lost their last chance. Even in despair, they fought with formidable prowess, enduring missile strikes and heavy artillery to form a circular perimeter and battle desperately to the end.
It took Wei Yuan nearly two full shichen to slay the final five-zhang-long dharma idol colossal crocodile. As the Marsh Croc banner fell, Shaman morale wavered drastically.
In the distance, murder flashed in Hongye's eyes, and the wine cup in his hand shattered instantly, splashing dark red blood-wine all over his clothes.
Several Great Shamans flew over, but before they could speak, Hongye barked, "Deploy the reserves and launch a full-scale assault! The human elite have suffered heavy casualties; their strength is completely spent!"
"Sire, we discovered—"
Hongye roared abruptly, "Attack!!"
Overawed, two of the Great Shamans plunged straight from the sky to the ground. Daring not utter another word, the survivors turned back immediately to carry out the order.
By then, fighting had raged from midnight to dawn, and the first light of morning touched the horizon.
Qingming had expended nearly all its shells and missiles. Of the hundred thousand heavy armored legionnaires, thirty thousand had died in battle alone; combined with sixty thousand dead defenders from the fortifications and thirty thousand fallen from the reinforcing lines, casualties surged to a staggering hundred and twenty thousand.
Shaman casualties, however, exceeded two hundred thousand. Their most elite Marsh Croc cavalry was wiped out entirely, and only three of the ten commanding Great Shamans managed to escape.
Wei Yuan had expected the Shamans to withdraw. Their military qi was plainly shaken, and their losses were catastrophic. While the sheer body count was lower than in previous clashes, nearly all the dead this time were elites, including premier troops like the Marsh Croc Knights. Raising a single qualified colossal marsh crocodile cost at least ten times as much as outfitting a human heavy cavalry mount.
According to the calculations of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, converting Shaman warriors into raw combat strength under a unified metric revealed that the two hundred thousand elites lost in this battle were equivalent to nine hundred thousand from earlier engagements!
Yet Wei Yuan heard no retreat, only the horns of advance. Pillars of blood-colored light rose from the altars in the Shaman rear, bestowing grand curses upon their warriors, and several hundred thousand troops from the center and rear began marching toward Qingming.
Though most of the remainder were commoners and slave levies, alongside a batch of noble retinues whose prowess remained an enigma, the total force still numbered as many as eight hundred thousand!
The opportunity Wei Yuan had been waiting for had arrived far sooner than anticipated.
Feng Chutang appeared beside Wei Yuan, his aura feeble. Buffeted by the battlefield's killing intent, military qi, and blood mist, he coughed violently before finally regaining his breath.
Looking at Wei Yuan, he said, "Everything is prepared. Your martial uncle cannot bear this burden; it can only fall to you."
Wei Yuan said, "It was my duty all along."
Peacock Buddha Mother also manifested, offering a bow. "Donor, going forth now will forge a tremendous karmic bond. Your future realization of the supreme karmic attainment begins with this single step today."
Little Monk Honglian stepped out from behind Peacock Buddha Mother, giving a grudging huff. "Count yourself luckier than me in Buddhist affinity!"
Wei Yuan paid no heed to the two monks. Just as he was about to step forward, he noticed Zhang Sheng standing nearby. He flashed to her side at once and asked, "Master, do you have any instructions?"
Zhang Sheng gazed deeply at Wei Yuan, saying in a grave voice, "Since this is something you are resolved to do and cannot be dissuaded from, you may as well be given free rein. If karmic ties are to be forged, so be it. We weathered the Karma Great Curse that day, so what karma is there left to fear? If one can cultivate the supreme sword, then of the myriad karmic bonds in this world, keep what you please and sever what you do not. For our sort who defy heaven, there is no other path."
Wei Yuan bowed to Zhang Sheng, then walked toward the front. After two paces, he turned back to see Bao Yun and Feng Tingyu standing in the distance, unaware of what he was about to do.
Wei Yuan smiled at them, then strode onward.
One step brought him to the front ranks; two steps took him out of Qingming; three steps placed him at the heart of the Shaman battle lines. Even the Nether Shamans watching from beyond the heavens were too late to intervene. Hongye had already kept his distance, and seeing Wei Yuan charge the ranks, he fell back another hundred li to keep Wei Yuan's divine consciousness from locking onto him.
Standing in the center of the Shaman ranks, with the central battle banner of the Land of Rain beneath his feet, Wei Yuan's mind was clear and tranquil. Softly, he chanted: "The world speaks of all conditioned dharmas; thus should they be contemplated..."
Though spoken softly, the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words echoed in the ears of every Shaman. Above Wei Yuan's head, the Red Lotus Bodhi appeared, its swaying branches and leaves shaking off boundless karmic debt.
A wisp of red-black flame ignited out of nothing in the void around Wei Yuan. Then more and more flames emerged, spreading outward through the grand formation Feng Chutang had laid long before.
Within the span of a breath, translucent red-black karmic fire engulfed the entire battlefield, burning soundlessly like an endless sea of flame. Countless Shamans collapsed within the fire, their faces frozen in ultimate horror. Under the scourging of the karmic flame, their bodies curled continually inward, resembling unborn babes.
Even Great Shamans burst into karmic flame, while Dao Foundation Shamans were wiped out without exception. Only two or three Great Shamans fled instantly into the distance while engulfed in karmic flame, their fates unknown.
High in the heavens, the gathering of Nether Shamans turned pale; half of them dared not look any longer and departed in silence.
On an isolated peak far in the distance, Shengxin gazed toward the battlefield, remaining silent for a long time.
Huixin asked, "What are you looking at?"
Shengxin merely shook his head. "Just watching the scenery at leisure." His expression remained unchanged, but a faint, nearly imperceptible bleakness seeped into his voice.
Within the forbidden grounds of the Sword Palace, a sword cultivator opened his eyes, pupils vast as a sea of sword qi. He reached out to summon his sword, then flicked the blade with a finger. The sword hummed with a dragon's roar that resonated for ten thousand li. He listened to the ringing blade, then murmured slowly, "At such a tender age, his skill may not be grand, but this sheer spirit bears more than a passing likeness to this Feng of years gone by."
In the third year of Tianqi of the Great Tang, Wei Yuan chanted the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words, refining eight hundred thousand warriors of the Shaman army with boundless red lotus karmic fire, shaking the entire realm.
Chapter 557